Once a Soldier, Always a Soldier

Chapter 3

Ash returned to the apartment numb on the inside and the out. The cold no longer pricked her skin and her mind no longer contemplated the world around her. She walked to the bed, her movements robotic and sat stiffly. Her spine ruler-straight as she stared vacantly at the wall in front of her.

On the outside, she seemed frozen in the moment, not moving but inside her head, there was a war being fought. This happened when every she allowed herself to dig too deep into her past and the ramifications it had on her future. Her whole being fought to keep the horrors that threatened to overwhelm her at bay.

She had to lock the memories out of her head or she was going to go mad. Ash needed a distraction and she needed it fast. She could already feel herself sinking. Sinking into the blackness where all her memories of her time as a soldier were imprisoned.

Ash could feel the hands of the starved memories reaching for her, to drown her and feed on her fear. Feed on her fear of herself. She shouted within her mind at the memories, thrashed wildly in their grasp.

She was drowning she could feel the darkness wrapping around her limbs and slipping into her mouth gagging her screams.

    //    //    //    //    //

Bruce was unsure what to do with Ash, he had to keep her hidden but Shield was looking into the group of people that were inevitably at any major issue around the world. The group, according to Shield, included multiple enhanced humans all of which were highly trained.

Bruce believed that the group that Shield was chasing was the same group that Ash worked with and if it came to light that one of the members of the vigilante heroes were living with him he was going to have a lot of trouble on base. He might even loose his job. Not that he needed the money but the Avengers were like a family to him.

He knew that he needed to tell Ash of the trouble that Shield would cause for her little gang of misfits but wasn't sure how to do it. It wasn't like he could walk into her room and say "My friends are searching for you and they will probably lock you up, run tests to find out what you are and torture you when you won't answer." Yep. That would go over real well.

Bruce walked into Ash's room, knowing that she had probably already been awake for hours, planning to tell her about the problem. He wished that she would allow him to stay with her when her past came back to haunt her but accepting comfort was not something that Ash knew how to do. Time, he always told himself. She just needed time.

As he stepped into the room and froze when he saw her statue-like on her bed. Her ebony tresses hung limply against her back, her face was slack with no emotions and her eyes refused to blink. This had happened before and he knew that he had to get her out of this daze. If he didn't he had seen how she would remain locked in her memories for days and was never the same when she came back to her current world.

Angrily he shook his head, the people who had done this to her were evil deprived beings hardly worthy of being called human. No one should have such an adverse effect on someone else's life that the memories could control them years after it had happened. It just wasn't right.

He glanced around the rest of the room taking in the familiar, modern, black and white furniture and the open windows even looked into the terrarium and saw that Smaug was still there, staring at her owner with apparent concern. 'ven the lizard knew something was wrong,  Bruce thought bitterly. There was nothing in the room that would set her off. He couldn't see what he could do to remove whatever was causing her the problem.

With nothing to do other than trying to break her forcefully from her trance he ran to her side and began to shake her rapidly. Calling out at her name with increasing desperation as she failed to respond to his efforts.